The promise, engraved in the glass panels of the Hans Cinema, is of a “whole
new experience”, but the young workers queuing up know exactly what’s in
store: an hour of song and dance, a fight, a chaste kiss and a lingering
shot of a village by the Ganges at sunrise.

The film has been made in Mumbai, but it’s not Bollywood. This is Bhojwood,
filmed in Bhojpuri, a dialect spoken in India’s most populous states. Cheap,
mostly shot on 35mm and regarded as a poor country cousin of Indian film,
the genre nevertheless keeps India’s entertainment industry afloat.